Sleeping with the Enemy

Sleeping with the Enemy is a 1991 American psychological thriller film directed by Joseph Ruben and starring Julia Roberts, Patrick Bergin and Kevin Anderson. The film is based on Nancy Price's 1987 novel of the same name.[2] Roberts plays a woman who fakes her own death and moves from Cape Cod to Cedar Falls, Iowa to escape from her controlling, obsessive and abusive husband, but finds her peaceful new life interrupted when he discovers her actions and tracks her down.

This article is about the film. For other uses, see Sleeping with the Enemy (disambiguation).

Sleeping with the Enemy
Theatrical release poster
Directed byJoseph Ruben[1]
Screenplay byRonald Bass
Based onSleeping with the Enemy
by Nancy Price[2]
Produced byLeonard Goldberg
Starring
CinematographyJohn Lindley
Edited byGeorge Bowers
Music byJerry Goldsmith
Distributed by20th Century Fox
Release date
  • February 8, 1991 (1991-02-08) (United States)
Running time
97 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$19 million[3]
Box office$175 million[3]

Sleeping with the Enemy was released theatrically on February 8, 1991. It received generally negative reviews from the critics, but was a box office success, grossing $175 million on a production budget of $19 million. The film also broke the record at the time for the highest domestic opening for a film with a female lead, grossing $13 million on its opening weekend surpassing the previous record held by Aliens, which grossed $10 million in its first weekend.

Plot

Laura Burney has a seemingly idyllic life and perfect marriage to Martin, a successful Boston investment counselor. Beneath Martin's charming, handsome exterior, however, is an obsessive and controlling person who has physically, emotionally, and sexually abused Laura throughout their nearly four-year marriage. Then, in a recurring pattern, he apologetically showers her with flowers and gifts.

Martin accepts the invitation of their neighbor, a doctor, for an evening sail, despite knowing that Laura fears water and cannot swim. As a severe storm unexpectedly rolls in, Martin and the doctor struggle to control the vessel. Laura is swept overboard. After an extensive Coast Guard search, Laura is presumed dead from drowning and Martin is inconsolable.

Laura is revealed to actually be alive. After secretly learning to swim, she planned to fake her own death to escape Martin's abusive and obsessive acts. During a storm, she jumped overboard, swam ashore, and returned home. She cut her hair, donned a wig, took her stashed belongings and money, and headed to a nearby bus station.

Laura moves to Cedar Falls, Iowa. Previously, she had told Martin that her blind, stroke-impaired mother, Chloe, had died, but Laura had secretly moved Chloe to an Iowa nursing home. Laura rents a house, finds a job, and settles into a new life as "Sara Waters". Her neighbor, Ben Woodward, a young drama teacher at a local college, is attracted to Laura, though he suspects she has a checkered past. They have an agreeable date, but when a kiss turns more physical, Laura resists and demands that Ben leave. She later admits to him that she escaped an abusive marriage.

Martin receives information indicating that Laura may still be alive. This is confirmed when he finds Laura's wedding ring in the toilet, which hadn't flushed as she had hoped for. Martin travels to Chloe's nursing home, masquerading a detective, and learns that Chloe's "nephew" has just visited. Laura, disguised as a man, is also at the nursing home, and barely misses encountering Martin. Martin discovers Laura's whereabouts and learns about Ben. He trails the couple to Laura's new house and breaks in while she and Ben are outside. Laura notices the small clues Martin deliberately left inside the house – the hand towels perfectly aligned and the contents of the kitchen cabinets lined up to Martin's exacting standards.

Martin then confronts Laura as Ben smashes the door down and attempts to subdue Martin, who knocks him unconscious. As Martin aims his gun at Ben, Laura distracts him by slamming her knee into his groin. She grabs Martin's gun and holds him at gunpoint. As Laura calls the police, Martin expects her to tell the police to protect her from him, as she had done in the past, but Laura shocks Martin by informing the police she has killed an intruder, and then shoots Martin three times in the chest. A wounded Martin seizes Laura by the hair and grabs the gun, aiming it at her in a desperate attempt to kill her, but the gun clicks empty. Martin then dies from his wounds, while Laura and Ben embrace and wait for the police.

Cast

Release

Critical reception

As of December 2022, the film held a 22% "Rotten" rating based on 37 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. The site's consensus states: "A game Julia Roberts gives it her all, but Sleeping with the Enemy is one stalker thriller that's unlikely to inspire many obsessions of its own."[4]

Roger Ebert gave the film 1.5 stars out of a possible 4 upon its release, saying while the film had good performances and the opening scenes "briefly seemed to have greatness in its grasp", Sleeping with the Enemy quickly fell into cliches and plot holes and became "a slasher movie in disguise, an up-market version of the old exploitation formula where the victim can run, but she can't hide."[5] Another mostly negative review came from Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly, who wrote that the film "has the bare bones of a tantalizing thriller" and praised Robert's performance ("you can practically feel her pulse"), but also felt Bergin's role was too "mechanical" to be believed, and placing blame on the "deadwood" script.[6]

Box office

The film's opening ended Home Alone's twelve week run atop the box office.[7] By the end of its run, the film had grossed $101,599,005 in the domestic box office; with an international total of $73,400,000, the film's worldwide gross was $174,999,005; based on a $19 million budget, the film was a box office success.[8] The film was released in the United Kingdom on April 12, 1991, and opened on #2, behind Highlander II: The Quickening.[9] The next week, the film remained in the same position.[10]

Soundtrack

The original music for the film was composed and conducted by Jerry Goldsmith. Columbia Records released an album concurrently with the film containing just over 38 minutes of score plus the Van Morrison song "Brown Eyed Girl". In 2011, La-La Land Records issued a limited edition album of 3500 copies expanding Goldsmith's score (but omitting the song).

Home media

The film reached #1 in the rental charts in September 1991.[11] It was released on LaserDisc in Australia, the United States, United Kingdom and Japan by Fox Video in 1991.[12] It also received various releases on VHS, was released on DVD on 2 September 2003, and subsequently entered the market of Blu-ray in June 2011. As of August 2023, it still hasn't been released on 4K.[13][14]

Awards

The score by Jerry Goldsmith won the BMI Film Music Award, 1992, and the film was nominated for the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films Saturn Award for 1992 in four categories: Best Actress (Roberts), Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor (Bergin), Best Horror Film and Best Music (Goldsmith).

Remakes

In February 2019, it was reported that a remake of Sleeping with the Enemy was in development at Searchlight Pictures, with Nia DaCosta helming the project.[15]

References
  1. Granville, Kari (February 8, 1991). "Joseph Ruben Finally Gets His Crane : Movies: A veteran director of low-budget fare makes it to majors with 'Sleeping With the Enemy.'". The Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on November 4, 2012. Retrieved January 11, 2011.
  2. Price, Nancy. "Nancy Price - Biography". Nancypricebooks.com. Archived from the original on March 16, 2012. Retrieved November 17, 2012.
  3. Sleeping with the Enemy at Box Office Mojo Archived 2011-07-08 at the Wayback Machine
  4. "Sleeping with the Enemy". Rotten Tomatoes. Archived from the original on November 28, 2017. Retrieved November 30, 2017.
  5. Ebert, Roger (February 8, 1991). "Sleeping with the Enemy (1991)". Chicago Sun-Times. Archived from the original on June 4, 2020. Retrieved June 4, 2020 – via RogerEbert.com.
  6. Gleiberman, Owen (February 8, 1991). "Sleeping With the Enemy". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on March 12, 2023.
  7. Broeske, Pat H. (February 12, 1991). "WEEKEND BOX OFFICE : 'Sleeping,' 'L.A.' Knock 'Home' Out". The Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on August 25, 2015. Retrieved January 11, 2011.
  8. Sleeping with the Enemy at Box Office Mojo
  9. "Weekend box office 12th April 1991 - 14th April 1991". www.25thframe.co.uk. Archived from the original on February 2, 2017. Retrieved January 30, 2017.
  10. "Weekend box office 19th April 1991 - 21st April 1991". www.25thframe.co.uk. Archived from the original on February 2, 2017. Retrieved January 30, 2017.
  11. Hunt, Dennis (September 5, 1991). "Video Rental Chart : Sales Reduce 'Home' Rentals". The Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on November 6, 2012. Retrieved April 21, 2011.
  12. "Laser Disc Laserdisc Movie Sleeping With The Enemy Julia-Roberts". ebay.com.au. Retrieved November 6, 2015.
  13. "Sleeping with the Enemy". DVD Release Dates. Archived from the original on November 21, 2017. Retrieved July 23, 2013.
  14. "Sleeping with the Enemy Blu-ray". DVDEmpire.com. Archived from the original on August 31, 2014. Retrieved November 6, 2015.
  15. Evangelista, Chris (February 26, 2019). "'Sleeping with the Enemy' Remake To Bring The Glory Days Of Trashy '90s Thrillers Into The 21st Century". /Film. Archived from the original on March 8, 2022. Retrieved March 8, 2022.
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